December 4th and 5th, 2010 was the date for the American Kennel Club^® (AKC) West Coast Meet the Breeds at the Eukanuba National Championship dog show in Long Beach, California. At Meet the Breeds, booths are creatively decorated and detailed to illustrate each breed’s characteristics, function, country of origin and history. All the AKC recognized breeds were on display with puppies and adults ready to greet the public with wags and puppy kisses.

This year’s PDCA Meet the Breed booth was a huge hit at the National Championship show! It started with a meeting with Jill & Becky Hart, resulting in the decision of a theme and approach for the booth: Chinese and red with lots of information available for anyone interested. So on Friday after breed judging, the volunteers met at our assigned location and within a short time, the booth took on a life of its own under Jill's wonderful direction. Thanks to our hard working helpers, the booth was ready to go the night before opening. In addition to Jill, Becky and Leslie, other Pug folks stopped by to lend a hand, including Janet & Michael Lekov, Jeanne Henderson and Ashley Fischer.

For our educational information, we employed a number of teaching aids, including a Rob Gravel-designed History of Pugs banner, a laminated copy of the ‘green cover’ illustrated standard as a stand-up table flip chart, handouts printed from Donnelle Richards’ template, and copies of the breed standard brochure were also available. Many visitors from all over the globe came by the booth to learn about and visit with the Pugs – often the crowd was 5 to 10 people deep. Unique to our booth was providing the means for each visitor to sanitize their hands prior to touching the Pugs – something not done at any other booth and resulting in many comments complimenting our efforts to protect the health of our dogs. Perhaps this was a factor in our booth being awarded a Group 4 in the Toy Group competition of booths.

Our booth staff/volunteers included: Jill & Becky Hart with Harris; Janet & Michael Lekov with Crystal; Katie Vellucci with her Frankie and Cassie; Caryl Ann Baxter from Ohio, who was competing with her obedience pug Mimi; Ashley Fischer with Stanley from Connecticut & Karen Rasmussen from Oregon; Breanna Uyeno (competed in Jr. Showmanship) with Totem and Gertie Goo; and Leslie and Jim Bridge DVM, CVA with Ling Ling and Sosa.

Additionally, the American Kennel Club has produced some video footage of all of the breed booths, and has made them available at this page. The Pugs appear in the third video, about 11 minutes into it.